The Ekiti State chapter of the All Progressives Congress has warned members of the party to desist from attacking Governor Biodun Oyebanji, threatening that appropriate action would be taken against anyone found culpable.
The warning came amid an allegation by the governor that some APC members were among individuals recruited to launch media attacks on him.
A statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Yinka Oyebode, in Ado Ekiti on Friday stated that “over 150 persons across various social media platforms, including notable influencers at the national level, had been paid to carry out the attack beginning from next week.”
Oyebode said the government would treat the plot with the seriousness it deserved.
He stated, “The sponsors of this grand plot, sadly, are members of the ruling APC, who are bent on heating up the polity in a bid to make a cheap political point. Part of their grand design, as uncovered, is to discredit the governor, as well as some key figures within the party and the government, through spurious and malicious allegations, including forged documents and AI-generated graphics.
“Those behind this planned social media onslaught are the same people who clandestinely launched a social media attack against President Bola Tinubu last week, using one of the federal roads in the state—the Itawure-Aramoko-Igede road—as an alibi.
“These characters went back to the drawing board and came up with another action plan, which includes inducing 150 social media attackers with huge sums of money (in foreign currency) to carry out the nefarious act of character assassination and cheap blackmail through online trending of forged documents.
“The government has chosen to alert the public on this grand plot in order to avert likely breach of the peace, recourse to self-help and unnecessary tension in the polity, which are the main intention of the masterminds of this ignoble plot.”
Commenting on the development, the state Publicity Secretary of the APC, Segun Dipe, warned members against destroying the party or creating division in the name of ambition.
He appealed to APC members to play by the rules and desist from activities capable of dividing the party.
Dipe said, “We have been warning such members and we will continue to warn, telling them that the primary election will soon be over. Hence, the need for us to come together and that they should not create cracks in the system through which the enemy can enter the party.
“So, if for any reason anybody tries to bring us down, we will warn them and if they do not heed, we will take appropriate action as allowed by the party machinery.
“We will apply the full weight of law as permitted by the party constitution on those ones who are trying to sell us cheaply to the outsiders.”
